and many more. He was the Instructor of Jazz Piano and Improvisation at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music for six years and before that at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and other universities.

Instrument(s):

Piano, accordion, voice.

Teachers and/or influences?

My parents met in Music Appreciation class in college so I was fed a lot of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven (but very few late Romantics!), Fiddler of the Roof, Camelot, and Spike Jones. The Beatles

's Om and African tribal music, and asked us how it made us feel. Wow! Exposure. Then in high school in upstate NY, Mr. Mac played us A Love Supreme and Monk, and showed me a II-V-I on piano. Jazz seemed to be following me around. I always improvised/made up stuff on piano, but this required more discipline.

Gigged on piano from age 13 on, at first in a tent revival, in a tent, on an out-of-tune upright. $75 a week! What am I going to do with all that money? Buy records!

's Moog album, Switched-On Bach. The Bill Evans Album on Columbia. Not a critic's fave, and the piano is out of tune, but I love it still, and bought it in three formats at least.

At 21, read a review of Airto's Fingers by Robert Palmer in Rolling Stone, went out and bought it, and it changed my musical direction for life. I have had a Latin jazz band called Circo everywhere I've lived except Wisconsin. The Dallas-Fort Worth version has two albums available on Amazon, CDBaby and the website.

Also, Gary Gazaway (an Arkansas native and trumpeter I met on a $5 gig in Fayetteville) sat me down and played me Hermeto Pascoal

's Vivo ao Montreaux. Sounded as mad and tinker-toy-ish as Zappa, but much groovier and folkloric.

Was a piano major, but didn't have the sitzfleish (extra padding on the seat) to sit there for four plus hours a day, so became a harpsichord major, then a vocal major, then settled on a BA in Composition. Became a first-call pianist in Little Rock AR, married, then was accosted by agent Benny Turner, who said, you're fixing to became the next generation's [beloved Arkansas jazz pianist] Art Porter. So, gathered the family and got a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas in Denton, and became a first-call pianist in DFW, taught at Texas Wesleyan University and other colleges, was Director of Dance Accompaniment at UNT, and cobbled together a living. Landed a job at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music and taught jazz piano, improvisation, jazz vocals, small groups, accompanied classical recitals and held seminars on the blues and accordion (not at the same time).

I knew I wanted to be a musician when...

I never wanted to be a musician, but never really wanted to do anything else, except act or write.

Your sound and approach to music:

Come from the heart at all times, unless more brain is required. Even if the people don't understand the theory, they will get your vibe. Tone is crucial for that reason.

Hear a note, then play it, hear another note, play it, repeat.

Tell a story when you play. That doesn't mean you don't occasionally switch stories in mid-solo; that's going to happen. But have one in mind.

Give something unique. Tony Hakim, a great singer I worked with DFW, said, "allow people to feel your brokenness, because we're all broken."

Your teaching approach:

Students are not you and your experiences, and they can't have yours, and you can't have theirs, and they need patience and support. Learning this music is not easy. It's like learning Armenian. Few speak Armenian. The student's potential girlfriends/boyfriends don't speak it, probably. But some do and to them, it matters a lot.